Episode 7 w/ Just Blaze

Summary

Detailed Summary of ROC Solid Episode 7 featuring Just Blaze

Release Date: July 22, 2025

---

1. Introduction and Brotherhood

Timestamp: [02:07] - [03:04]

Memphis Bleek opens the episode by introducing his longtime friend and collaborator, Just Blaze. He emphasizes their deep-rooted brotherhood that began in the late '90s, highlighting their shared history and mutual respect within the hip-hop community.

Memphis Bleek:
"You know if anybody on this show that mean they Rock Solid and they my brothers and I'm happy to announce I got my real bro, Just Blaze in the studio."
[02:42]

Just Blaze:
"Yes sir."
[02:42]

---

2. New Music Projects: "Durag Bleak"

Timestamp: [03:04] - [05:19]

The conversation shifts to Memphis Bleek's upcoming music release, titled "Durag Bleak." He discusses the inspiration behind the record, blending his past influences with his current artistic vision. The name reflects his personal growth and the evolution of his message.

Memphis Bleek:
"You hear that young hunger, and when you really listen, you like damn Bleak talking that grown-up talk."
[03:53]

Just Blaze:
"That's why I was like, it's Durag Bleak. Word up."
[03:52]

---

3. Grassline Entertainment and Video Game Production

Timestamp: [04:00] - [11:32]

Just Blaze delves into his venture into the video game industry with Grassline Entertainment, a production studio he started with his family and partners. He shares the challenges they faced, including a significant flood that damaged their equipment, and their commitment to rebuilding and preserving their legacy.

Just Blaze:
"We had the soda machine on all this. Got rid of all of that and just kept the important stuff."
[10:26]

Memphis Bleek:
"That's the beauty of this business, man. Watching everything come to fruition that you put down on paper."
[05:02]

---

4. The Legacy of Baseline Studio

Timestamp: [11:32] - [22:17]

Memphis and Just Blaze reminisce about Baseline Studio, a pivotal hub in hip-hop history. They discuss its significance, the iconic equipment housed there, and the collaborative environment that fueled countless classic records. The studio's transformation into a museum underscores its enduring impact on the genre.

Memphis Bleek:
"That studio made classics, man. Like, we got a lot of history to talk about in Baseline."
[11:30]

Just Blaze:
"It's more than just a studio. It's a creative hub at that point."
[34:37]

---

5. DJ Battles and Studio Culture

Timestamp: [13:10] - [29:38]

The hosts delve into the vibrant culture of DJ battles at Baseline, particularly highlighting the origin of "Keep It Real Wednesday." They share anecdotes about legendary DJ battles, the competitive yet supportive atmosphere, and the camaraderie that defined their time at the studio.

Just Blaze:
"This is how Keep It Real Wednesday originated."
[27:14]

Memphis Bleek:
"They sound good on a boombox. And it just so happened that the first time that came about was on a Wednesday."
[28:45]

---

6. Collaborations with Jay-Z and Iconic Records

Timestamp: [36:34] - [47:19]

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to their collaboration with Jay-Z. Just Blaze recounts the creation of iconic tracks like "Hypnotic" and the spontaneity of their creative process. Memphis shares insights into Jay-Z's work ethic and the dynamic nature of their partnership.

Memphis Bleek:
"That's how we did Hypnotic. He turned the lights down in the studio, had incense burning, and went to sleep."
[36:34]

Just Blaze:
"He wakes up with the verse. Like, what the hell? You wrote a verse in your sleep."
[36:55]

---

7. Media, Journalism, and the Modern Music Landscape

Timestamp: [54:19] - [59:35]

The discussion takes a critical turn as Memphis and Just Blaze address the current state of media and journalism in the music industry. They express concerns over lack of context, the spread of misinformation, and how sound bites can distort an artist's true message. They advocate for more authentic and in-depth conversations to preserve the integrity of hip-hop narratives.

Just Blaze:
"The way out the way for me was like, for us, or rather when I say for us, I mean like on the studio side."
[35:36]

Memphis Bleek:
"They make no sense. It makes no sense."
[56:32]

---

8. Personal Anecdotes: Cars and Early Days

Timestamp: [61:28] - [66:33]

Just Blaze shares personal stories about his journey from buying and decorating cars in New York City to owning luxury vehicles like Teslas and Lamborghinis. Memphis reminisces about their experiences at Baseline, the camaraderie, and the personal losses they've endured, adding depth to their narratives.

Just Blaze:
"I moved out to New York at a young age, like 17, 18, literally $40 in my pocket."
[62:18]

Memphis Bleek:
"State Property dips. Everybody worked at night. So I would come to the studio."
[34:50]

---

9. Upcoming Projects and Future Endeavors

Timestamp: [67:22] - [70:28]

Memphis reveals his plans for a new album that aims to convey vulnerability and share his life lessons with the younger generation. Just Blaze promotes their sneaker-focused project "Fresh Pear," collaborating with Caddy Customs and Uproxx, highlighting its unique blend of sneaker design and artist storytelling.

Memphis Bleek:
"I want to have you on there... Son, I'm about to shoot your video. Hopefully this summer."
[67:59]

Just Blaze:
"We build a custom sneaker around the artist's journey and their career and their life."
[69:07]

---

10. Conclusion and Final Remarks

Timestamp: [70:28] - [71:24]

The episode wraps up with Memphis and Just Blaze encouraging listeners to follow their projects and stay connected through social media. They reflect on the enduring legacy of their work and the importance of staying true to their roots.

Memphis Bleek:
"You can follow me on any social media platform under the name Memphis Bleak."
[70:28]

Just Blaze:
"Please tune in new episodes, dropping every show."
[70:12]

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Memphis Bleek:
  "The message is who I am now."
  [03:45]

• Just Blaze:
  "It was the hardest thing I have right now that we can."
  [16:06]

• Memphis Bleek:
  "Dame was that guy that was on your neck if you wasn't fresh."
  [31:59]

• Just Blaze:
  "Once something is on the Internet, it lives forever."
  [47:58]

• Memphis Bleek:
  "We don't diss each other, right? We support each other."
  [31:29]

---

Conclusion

Episode 7 of ROC Solid offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of Memphis Bleek and Just Blaze, exploring their illustrious careers, personal journeys, and the evolving landscape of hip-hop. Through candid conversations and shared memories, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the dedication and passion that drive these industry legends. The episode not only celebrates their past achievements but also sets the stage for exciting future projects, reinforcing the essence of being "ROC Solid."

---

Stay tuned to ROC Solid for more raw conversations, untold stories, and exclusive industry insights. Stay solid. Stay Roc.

Transcript

[Memphis Bleak]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Just Blaze]

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[Just Blaze]

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[Just Blaze]

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[Memphis Bleak]

You ever try fixing your car and realize you're missing that one part? Yeah, been there. That's why ebay is my go to. They've got millions of parts guaranteed to fit. I'm talking brake pads for when yours have seen one too many miles of stop and go oil filters cause you don't mess around with your engine care. Even got this cold air intake on my watch list. I might just go for it to keep the ride cool and your DIY streak hot. Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time eBay things people love Eligible items only Exclusion supply What up y'?

[Just Blaze]

All?

[Memphis Bleak]

This your main man, Memphis Bleak right here. Welcome to Rock Solid, a production of iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network in partnership with my guys over at Drink Champs. Big whipping. Yeah Memphis, I'm back at it. Notice the difference. Just more grown. Prezi, no stones. What it is? Your boy Memphis Bleak back with a new episode of Rock Solid. And you know if anybody on this show that mean they Rock Solid and they my brothers and I'm happy to announce I got my real bro. Just Blaze in the studio.

[Just Blaze]

Yes sir.

[Memphis Bleak]

Me and just go black. Go back. Like dub wag wave caps.

[Just Blaze]

You heard?

[Memphis Bleak]

That's how me and my bro go back. I met this guy 1999 or 98, going into 99. And it's just been brotherhood since then. So just appreciate you, my guy, coming through. You already know what it is. This is just a convo, my brother. Good seeing you.

[Just Blaze]

When's the last time you wore Durag Wave or Wavecat?

[Memphis Bleak]

When I retired, when I took the one, that's when the durag came off.

[Just Blaze]

Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's why a lot of people don't know, you know, I'm out, I'm out of time. About to drop some music, right? And the first call I made, I had did a song I called Jess. I'm like, yo, just. I know you don't make beats, but I need one, right? He was like, send me the joy. I sent it to him after you sent it back after I heard everything.

[Just Blaze]

Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

You know the name of the record is Durag Bleep or Mommy. Name of that record is called Durag Bleak. Because I felt that's where I was when I. When I envisioned it. Like, it was the skills of who I was then.

[Just Blaze]

Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

But the message is who I am now.

[Just Blaze]

Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

You know what I mean? So it's like, you hear me, you hear that young hunger, and when you really listen, you like damn bleak talking that grown up talk.

[Just Blaze]

Right, right, right, right.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's why I was like, it's Durag Bleak. Word up. So what you've been up to, man?

[Just Blaze]

Man, family.

[Memphis Bleak]

I know, man. Fam. Definitely fam. First. Man, you got the beautiful kids out there vacationing everywhere trying to compete with me, y'.

[Just Blaze]

All, we actually just came from Orlando not long ago, but. Yeah. Nah, just family, you know, Brian, my wife and a couple partners started video game production studio called Grassline Entertainment. So I helped with that, you know, in terms of getting that up off the ground and getting up and running. It's a beautiful thing now to see, you know, what they're building, how they're building it. As diverse as the staff is and as many of them as there are, I can't wait till we can announce things a little further. Yeah, but it's been an amazing past couple of years. I mean, you know, it's that old story.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Starting my living room, literally, right? And fast forward three, four years later, and everything that you hoped and worked and dream towards is now, you know, happening in.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's. That's the. That's the beauty of this business, man. Watching everything come to fruition that you put down on paper. And watching it grow is, like. Right. That's the best. It's almost the same as having a child.

[Just Blaze]

It's like. It's a different form of child because.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

You know, it all starts from an idea.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes, definitely. And watch it grow. So just. Man. Man, let's get into it. Y' all don't know. My man Jess is a tech genius. Just so y' all know. As we recording him, he's recording us just to make sure we ain't up, y'.

[Just Blaze]

All.

[Memphis Bleak]

You know what I'm saying? We got. Everybody know. He got the ill glasses that's taping everything. So if you think you're gonna walk by him and think you slipped on his property and sue him. He got it on tape. He got it on tape. So out of the video game stuff you talking about? I had a question. What's your top five video games all time. Cause you a major gang.

[Just Blaze]

That's a tough one. I would have to. You know I'm old, right? So I'm gonna go back to the 80s.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's how. Come on, Frogger. All that Zelda. I played all that. I want to know. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Street Fighter for sure.

[Memphis Bleak]

Of course.

[Just Blaze]

And Mortal Kombat. They kind of almost go hand in hand.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, right.

[Just Blaze]

Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Revenge of Shinobi. Not just for the game, but for the music. The music in that game is something that inspired me to create.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's three.

[Just Blaze]

I would have.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's three.

[Just Blaze]

I would have to say Call of Duty.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, that's right. Put the gunplay in there.

[Just Blaze]

That's right. I would have to say Call of Duty just as a series. There's some that are better than others.

[Memphis Bleak]

Definitely black Ops.

[Just Blaze]

You a black ops guy?

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right. It's the best.

[Just Blaze]

Okay. Okay. And I'll get one more. Whoa, hold on. It's gonna come to me. Yeah. I would have to say socom.

[Memphis Bleak]

Socom.

[Just Blaze]

Socom.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's. Ain't that like the big old, biggest open world?

[Just Blaze]

Nah, SOCOM was old. SOCOM was like, the first online game on a console.

[Memphis Bleak]

First.

[Just Blaze]

First person shooter on the console. It's kind of like a. I wouldn't say a predecessor to Call of Duty, but it might. But it's. It was the first game where you could get online and do a Call of Duty type thing and actually had a headset. I think it was August.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. You was the first and baseline with all the games. Xbox, PlayStation. You know, me. And you never had an argument in our life, you know, never had an argument. But, you know, you yelled at me one time.

[Just Blaze]

What was it?

[Memphis Bleak]

One time?

[Just Blaze]

What was it you was playing?

[Memphis Bleak]

Guru and Basketball.

[Just Blaze]

Okay.

[Memphis Bleak]

Xbox. And I'm like, yo, just. I need the beat. This nigga, like, hold on one fucking minute. Please. Give me one minute, man. We in the middle of the game. I'm like, God damn. I've never seen just like this. So I'm like, wait a minute.

[Just Blaze]

Is it the game?

[Memphis Bleak]

They don't know how competitive this guy is when it come to that game.

[Just Blaze]

I think it was. That was just baseline in general. Yo. The only two people that ever beat me at anything at baseline after I beat Guru in the DJ battle, which we'll talk about.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, yeah, we gotta get into that.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Then he came back. I forget what we played, but he got me good. And, you know, I slept on HOV in.

[Memphis Bleak]

What? The boxing? HOV was nice. Yeah, the boxing, yo. HOV was nice in the boxing.

[Just Blaze]

Fight night.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, my. Jesus Christ. He dragged you to the link rounds and totally.

[Just Blaze]

You know, I used to do things at baseline, like play with one hand, like, all right. Nope. So he's like, I could play.

[Memphis Bleak]

I'm like, yeah, yeah. HOV was nice.

[Just Blaze]

Pause. He got on the sticks and I was like, yo. Like, by the time I figured out that I was being pool shark, it was too late.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, it's like that on the pool table too, right? You know, Hov is you Ms. Once, you don't get to shoot, right.

[Just Blaze]

You don't get to shoot again. Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

Between him and Juan, you cannot miss. You miss once, right? You do not shoot again. Game is over. Grab the. Wrap the triangle and rack up, baby. That's it. Game over.

[Just Blaze]

You know, I still got the baseline pool table.

[Memphis Bleak]

No way. You got it. You had all the baseline, all the classic memorabilia for the whole museum thing.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. So now when we did the thing at the. At the museum, I had got a call from Dave Malakpur, who was the dude that built the original baseline. So we was talking about something else a few days before that. I forget what it was just something from my studio.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

For the COVID For the COVID studio. And he called me, like, two days later, and he was like, yo, so all the stuff from baseline, you know, how much of that do you have? Or do you have any of it? I'm like, I have everything.

[Memphis Bleak]

Wow.

[Just Blaze]

What do you mean? I'm like, I literally have everything. Like, he's like, the keyboards, I said, you know, I had the board, I had the Monitors. I had the tape machine.

[Memphis Bleak]

Wow.

[Just Blaze]

I had anything that was hung up on the walls like nails. Like, I literally had. When we shut down baseline, you know, everything basically just went into storage.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes. Yes.

[Just Blaze]

And the most unfortunate part about it was it was stored for years. And then. Right. We finally said, all right, let's figure out what we're going to do with August. Right. So first thing we did, the first way, we took out, we got rid of everything that was trash.

[Memphis Bleak]

Y. Y.

[Just Blaze]

We had the soda machine on all this. Get all this out of here. Got a couple of dumpsters, Got rid of all of that and just kept the important stuff. And we had the plan to come back the following week to start figuring out what to do with the important stuff.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

And we caught a flood. We had a hurricane 2020.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, yeah. That hit New York. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Ended up catching about two and a half, three feet of water. So we're just like. When Dave called me and I told him what happened, I said, listen, we've been trying to figure out what we're gonna do because a lot of stuff got water damaged, but we don't know the extent of it. So the deal I made with him, you know, he told me what was going on with the museum.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

And it was wild that the dude that originally built it was the guy.

[Memphis Bleak]

Running in the museum. That's dope, man.

[Just Blaze]

I said, listen, I don't want no money out of it. I don't. You know, we don't need to. We don't need to worry about finances.

[Memphis Bleak]

Just do your rebuild and take care of the stuff.

[Just Blaze]

Exactly. I can return everything in working order or in as much working order as possible.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right.

[Just Blaze]

So that's what we're working on now.

[Memphis Bleak]

That was the biggest draw at the museum. Noticed that. Right? Everybody, as soon as they saw the line baseline, everybody was up in there, like, I gotta check it out, man. That studio made classics, man. Like, we got a lot of history to talk about in baseline. But since you brought it up, let's get into it first.

[Just Blaze]

One thing I will say, you know, my wife was like, you know, you're gonna catch feelings when you walk in there.

[Memphis Bleak]

I'm like, hell, yeah. Go.

[Just Blaze]

But you know what? It wasn't just the room reconstructed as well as it was in terms of the accuracy. It was also everybody there being there inside that same space that we had.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, I didn't think that myself when I walked into the museum. You know, I'm thinking, okay, they did a little exhibit for Jay. Let's Go check it out. But then when you actually walk through and seeing the history, and it's like, wait a minute. We were really there. We art of this. We contributed to this. It's like, this is our exhibit, too.

[Just Blaze]

Right?

[Memphis Bleak]

You know what I mean? That's what it made me feel. And then to be in Brooklyn. Come on, dawg. I walked and rolled bikes past that museum my whole life, so to have something in there with my face on it was like, oh, that's a blessing.

[Just Blaze]

What kind of bike you rode?

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, man, I rode everything. Mongooses, GT Performers. When they came out with the rotary neck, I thought I was the nicest in the head. Spin handlebars, you know what I'm saying? The pegs, all that. I wasn't too nice. But we still give.

[Just Blaze]

Come before. On your way out, after we done here, you got to swing by the crib real quick, all right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Of the bikes.

[Just Blaze]

Yes.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, you ain't playing. You got the museum of Museums, man. Like. But, Joe, listen, I want to start a versus, right, Okay? A DJ battle. Cuz a lot of people don't know you nice. On the wheels of ste.

[Just Blaze]

Yes, sir.

[Memphis Bleak]

I watch my man make. Show me what you got. Beat just off one turn.

[Just Blaze]

Right, right, right. Just cutting, cutting in. Everything live.

[Memphis Bleak]

So just off one turn. Y' all producers stop playing. Y' all using all this computerized. They do it for you. Cause I can make a beat now. Back then, I could. We gonna get into that, too.

[Just Blaze]

But you know what it is for me? And I always tell people this, like, me as a producer, and the way I move as a producer, it's all dictated by learner. I was a DJ from the time I was.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, Your brother putting in that work shout out DJ in Vegas. You know what I'm saying? My God.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. For both of us. Because, you know, we. Both of us grew up in that era where you didn't just rap. You didn't just make beats. You didn't just.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

You didn't just be. Boy, you did everything right. And then you figured out along. Along your journey, you figure out what.

[Memphis Bleak]

You'Re good at best at. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

What you pursue, you know? And as nice of a DJ as I am, because he's a working dj. That's what he does.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes, he smashes me.

[Just Blaze]

Pause.

[Memphis Bleak]

Your brother, he gets busy, but, yeah.

[Just Blaze]

He does it every night. Yeah, I come out on stage occasionally and still use it in the studio, but that's what.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's.

[Just Blaze]

That's how he lived.

[Memphis Bleak]

That was the first time I seen My man Guru mad, it's battling. My man Just Blaze. And he asked for the smoke.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah, he did. Yeah. I didn't see it.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, he asked for the smoke that day. He was in there getting busy. And we was in there like, ooh, ooh, good. And then just like, get on the stairs. It wasn't even the battle. It was just was playing and then go got pissed at. Just like, hold on. Get off my turntables. These is mine, right? Walked in the room, yo, what's going on?

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Sat down, took a front row seat.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep. Like, oh, they getting it in. They on their DJ scratch battle right now. Yeah, that was ill, man. That like, Guru get busy on the dj. But he can't with you. Nope. I told him that to his face. He can't with you. That's my man. Just on the. But you know, rocking the party now. I don't know if you got Goo on rocking the party. Cause Gooby out there. Gooby out there DJing everywhere. Oh, it's smoke. See you. See you. See y'.

[Greenlight Advertiser]

All.

[Memphis Bleak]

DJ versus Swiss. Holla at me. Goo and Chess Blaze. We only need one show.

[Just Blaze]

You only need one time.

[Memphis Bleak]

We only need one show. I don't care about no other DJs.

[Just Blaze]

Just these two and one turntable.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's it. Yo, but all the history that we did in baseline, right? Like, what's your. I'm gonna ask you. It's a two part question. Because I gotta know. Like, besides Hov. Because we already know, right?

[Just Blaze]

Of course.

[Memphis Bleak]

What's your top? I ain't gonna even say. 5. Three beats you ever made, whether for any artist. Freeway, Me, Dipset.

[Just Blaze]

Three is pause. Three. Three is hard. Yeah, you know. You know. Cause so many classics came out of that space.

[Memphis Bleak]

Who was the most fun to work with? Like, artist wise, like. Cause you worked with a lot of artists, man. A lot of people don't know. You know what I mean? You put a lot of work in on Bad Boy. Like, you did a lot of Mace project. You know what I'm saying?

[Just Blaze]

No, you know what I. I'll say overall, if you gotta. If you look at the story and the history and how it all happened, I have to put PSA on that list, right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, man.

[Just Blaze]

Because, you know, the record happened so last minute and so unplanned, right? Like, we was mixing. This is 2003. What are we mixing?

[Memphis Bleak]

Was it hypnotic? Probably.

[Just Blaze]

I think we were mixing hypnotic around the corner at Battery.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep, album's done.

[Just Blaze]

You know, like I've mentally moved on December 4th we did the intro, we physically moved on. The album's already at the plant. Like, it's already. It's already being manufactured. So while we're Mason hypnotic, the homie, my brother Jack comes through with the Little Boy, Little Boy Blues record. Like, yo, you need to listen to this. And at first I was like, all right, we'll get to it because we're gonna do this mix. He's like, no, you need to listen to this. So Jack. And Jack don't talk a lot.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, if you say it twice, man, you need to, you know, you need to check it out. Yes.

[Just Blaze]

All right, so Ken, I want to say Ken Lewis was the one of my engineer OGs. He's mixing. I got the headphones on and my George just hit the floor. And I'm like, yo, Ken, stop. Whatever you ain't doing right now, turn this up. So he plays it on the speakers and I'm like. His face perks up like, what am I mixing this? And I'm like, bro, I don't know. I don't even know what's happening, right? But I make the beat right away run around the corner. And we all know that part, you know? And Jay at first was like, do we need this? And me and Len is sitting there like, Amig Len. And Go was sitting there like, what do you mean doing?

[Memphis Bleak]

You need this, right?

[Just Blaze]

So he goes and does it. And I told that story a million times. But going back to what I was saying about the game studio, right? It's one of those things where it's just an idea and it might happen, it might not. But to watch it come to fruition and watch it happen so quickly and for something that was kind of like. I don't even want to call it an afterthought because it just. It was just a last minute thing. But something that we did so quickly to kind of become one of his career defining biggest records, too, is amazing.

[Memphis Bleak]

I remember when I found out that was you on the intro, right? I remember when you talk, I'm like, yo, who's that talking in the beginning? Where you get that sample from? Just like.

[Just Blaze]

And that's me, fellow American.

[Memphis Bleak]

I'm like, yo, you lying. He like, no, that's me talking.

[Just Blaze]

Yup, that and a second one. Yup. But, yeah, so I would have to say that. I would have to say, you don't know, because a lot of the blueprint records existed, like, way before. Like, the records that we ended up doing had already been in the statue. Everybody knows. I've said A zillion times. Girls, Girls, Girls was made with Ghost face and money.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

And me and Hip were holding it for that, for the time we would eventually meet. So a lot of those records were done, I think. You don't know. Went through so many almost. And I kept getting. There was only two artists that ever heard that record, aside from Jay was P, Rest In Peace, Prodigy, and Buster. Right. But they both heard it in the context where, like, I'm skipping. Remember we used to have the DATs.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

The fast forward. So I'm fast forwarding through the dat. And they would hear that, like, what's that? And I'm like, it wasn't that they weren't capable. I just knew that that record needed to go somewhere super special. It needs to be a moment.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

And I wasn't necessarily holding it for Jay because, remember, at the time when I made the beat, Jay wasn't recording. Like, the blueprint happened on a whip.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

He just walked in like, yo, any. Anybody got some beats? I just got four from. Yay. Right? So when he walked in unplanned, unannounced, like, yo, I feel like rapping. I just felt something.

[Memphis Bleak]

Just the record. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Right. So definitely that one. I really mean, it was kind of the same way.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, I was just about to say, bro, listen, that record, I hated all of y'.

[Just Blaze]

All.

[Memphis Bleak]

I hated all. You was part of Dipset during that record. You ain't even know.

[Just Blaze]

Well, I remember that. That day, funny enough. That day, that was the day the camera was like, yo, I'll get you a D, Dipset chain. I was like, okay. I never got it. But, yeah, that. That was another beat that was laying around for a while. The thing is, I loved it musically. I never liked the way that it sounded sonically, but when they came in that day, they were like, yo, we need something. We need it now. It's just like, what's the hardest, hardest thing that I have right now that we can.

[Memphis Bleak]

That really mean it, Jo. And originally they stomped on that.

[Just Blaze]

Cam wasn't on it. Originally.

[Memphis Bleak]

It was just Jim and Santana.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. And then. And they. And then the thing with Nas happened and then came right back, like, the next day. It's like, nah, we focus.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. No, they. They. They stomped on that record. That's a classic. That's what I was going to say. That's one of my favorites. And you just even explaining what you said, just even with the. That tape, like, even knowing this beat needed to be for a bigger. Bigger purpose and all of that.

[Just Blaze]

Right. It wasn't because it wasn't bigger artists.

[Memphis Bleak]

It was just bigger purpose. I tell people all the time, that's the difference between beat maker and producers. Cause a beat maker just giving you a tape and let you shop through all the beats he's supposed to do, right? He send you 27 beats. It's like your fam. I only could rap the one or two. You're supposed to pick the best two. And no, he's also supposed to walk.

[Just Blaze]

With you through the process. That's why I tell a lot of. See a lot of times, you know, even the records where I didn't do.

[Memphis Bleak]

The beat, you still gave direction.

[Just Blaze]

Me and Goo produced a lot of those records. Those records that were done at baseline because the producer would just drop the beat off and leave.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, yo, me and Google be the.

[Just Blaze]

Ones like, all right, let's. We got these 30 beats from whatever producer. Let's take these three, focus on these three. All right, get with the artists. This is what we talking about. This is how we talking about it. Coaching them through the vocal tapes, pulling the best performance out of them. So it was really a lot of, A lot of times either the artists were producing themselves or me and Goo were producing those records.

[Memphis Bleak]

I played a major part. You remember Keep It Real Wednesday?

[Just Blaze]

Keep it Real Wednesday. I think I still might have one of the T shirts.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, listen, it's still producers to this day that don't like us, right? To this day that like yo, Bleak. You ain't getting no beat. None of y'.

[Just Blaze]

All.

[Memphis Bleak]

Beans Freeway J. I don't care what y' all say, right? How much money. No beats for y'. All.

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[Just Blaze]

So for those who aren't aware, Keep It Real Wednesday. This is how.

[Memphis Bleak]

No, we was fouled.

[Just Blaze]

This is how Keep It Real Wednesday originated. I won't say the producer, but somebody had left a tape with Hov and at the time, he loved it, right? I came in the next day, I wasn't there that day. This was like whatever day of the week it was. I took a day off, come in the next day. He's like, yo, you might be finished out here.

[Memphis Bleak]

You know how old it is. We're always trying to tell you somebody else taking your spot, right?

[Just Blaze]

So he's like, you might be finished out here. I'm like, wow. He's like, such and such. Just came through with like 20. And they crazy. The tape was still in the DAT player in my studio, right? In the B roll.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So I play the tape and I'm like, okay. Like, this is what everybody's doing. Crazy. But I had to voice my opinion. I just kept it to myself. But I'm listening to the tape like my spot is fine.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly, right?

[Just Blaze]

So later on that day, either, either later on that day, the next day, everybody comes in and they play the tape. And all the faces in the room was like, but what it was, everything sounds good loud.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right.

[Just Blaze]

Right. And the beat was being. All the beats was being played wild loud in the A roll.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right.

[Just Blaze]

So that's where, you know, everybody realized that. So the, the general consensus was, all right, from now on, when a producer comes through, he got to play his beats on the boombox and wow, that's right. They sound good on a boombox.

[Memphis Bleak]

They sound good everywhere. Everything loud sounds good. And they could gas you up. You hear the bass, you'd be like, oh yeah, it's lit. As soon as you go turn it down, you're like, this is not that same.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah, right. It's not the same energy. So from there it was all right. You got to play your beats on the boombox. And it just so happened that some. The first time that that came about was on a Wednesday.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. And we had.

[Just Blaze]

And everybody just happened to be in the lab.

[Memphis Bleak]

They used to tell every artist you call their favorite producers. You call your producers. Y' all call the producers you working with. You call the producers. You working with 50 different producers in the.

[Just Blaze]

In the studio, in the lounge, and.

[Memphis Bleak]

Everybody had a shot.

[Just Blaze]

Yep. And so the. The outcome was, if you played something.

[Memphis Bleak]

Great, some heat, right? Got a T shirt.

[Just Blaze]

You got. You got the T shirt. I survived. Keep it real Wednesday. And you might get, like, the walk. The. The walk of fame down the hallway.

[Memphis Bleak]

Somebody shout you out. Yeah, Love, yo. He got heat. But if those who.

[Just Blaze]

It wasn't no good.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, my God.

[Just Blaze]

And see, the problem was that I used to try to stay out the room then only because, obviously, you know, people look at us as the crew, right. Like, so if I'm in the room, they're looking at me like, as. Even if I'm not saying nothing, I'm.

[Memphis Bleak]

Part of the crew. Yeah. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So I'm still getting the side, and I'm getting the extra side out because I'm the producer. I'm the crew producer, right. So I used to try to stay out the room, and it was always Dame. They used to try to get me to come in the room with him. What you think? And I'm like, I'm not a music guy. You're the music guy. What you think? And I'm like, I'm not doing it.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, Dame was. Yo, Dame. See, that's why I'm mad. The world get to see, you know, this side of Dame, Right. They don't know the side that we know. Like, Dame was a genuine good guy for the team.

[Just Blaze]

For the team.

[Memphis Bleak]

He fought for every single, single person that put that Rockefeller chain on their neck, Right. If you walk through them baseline doors, right. Dane was out there swinging for you.

[Just Blaze]

No, I will say, word up. When my pops died, I didn't come in, you know, I didn't come in the baseline telling anybody. But, you know, folks started to find out, just through word of mouth, whatever, Dane was the first one to come into the room and be like, yeah, you good. You know, and being ready or willing to talk about it, I wasn't in the space to really talk about it too much because it had just happened like the day before. But he was the first person in the room to be like, yo, anything.

[Memphis Bleak]

You need family with him. D was A genuine good dude. He just was. He was just sharp, B. He was the perfect example of what New York was like. If you, like, think we grew up in the worst era, I always tell my son and I try to tell a lot of kids that I come across like, y' all got it good. Y' all friends, y' all love each other. Y', all, y', all, y', all, y' all don't diss each other, right?

[Just Blaze]

You support each other.

[Memphis Bleak]

Like, growing up with my friends, if. If you came out on Easter, you didn't have on new clothes. Ah, his mom's a crackhead. Like, yo, what? No. How about. I just didn't have money to go. She went food shopping, fam. Like, that's more important than this outfit.

[Just Blaze]

Right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Right.

[Just Blaze]

But that's. That's the difference in, I think in the eras, there's a lot more concentration and a lot more focus on support.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Mental health, things of those nature. Like, there was no talk about it. No.

[Memphis Bleak]

And dame. Dame was that. He was that guy that was on your neck if you wasn't fresh. Yo, this bum ass nigga. He ain't pop tags. Look at these dirty ass sneakers, right? I tell a lot of dudes today they would not survive that Rockefeller wave. That camp that we had in baseline. There's a lot of people out here today that if they walk through them doors, they will leave out with a shell of themselves. Because you was getting tested, bro. From state property member Beans. And put blood on the wall.

[Just Blaze]

Like.

[Memphis Bleak]

They put blood in the studio, my G. Like, you know what I'm saying? That's why I can't wait to get beads up here. So we could really get into those type of stories.

[Just Blaze]

If you get into those stories, I will come back. I will come back.

[Memphis Bleak]

Put blood on the wall in baseline horror movies being filled in baseline.

[Just Blaze]

You.

[Memphis Bleak]

Know, baseline was a different world.

[Just Blaze]

It was. It really was. But you know, it's so much history that was made there.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes, man.

[Just Blaze]

And the thing about it really is, if you don't know that you're making it while you're making it, right. You don't know.

[Memphis Bleak]

You're. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

You're in the process.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly.

[Just Blaze]

Doing what you do. But if you look at just about every great movement, not just in hip hop, but just in general, like, Motown had Hitsville. They had their spot.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Bad boy had Daddy's house, you know what I mean?

[Memphis Bleak]

In a host of producers, Murder Inc. Had they. Had they joint. Murder Inc. What was the name of their studio? Got it. The Crack House. Yes. You know, had they spot.

[Just Blaze]

Right. You know, if you look at Chung King, you go back to the early 80s. Most of the stuff that was coming through Def Jam, you know, were through Rush. It was all happening at Chung King. Right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, Chung King, Damn. I remember that D and D almost bought Chung King. No way.

[Just Blaze]

When he was baseline, was still around, but it was too busy. And the thing about Chung King, John, the guy that owned it, he had the two floors with all the studios, but he also had apartments on the same floor. So the idea was me and Hit would have just moved into those apartments.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Studio, you know, didn't happen for a number of reasons. But Chunk King almost became like Baseline.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. That's crazy, man. Chunk King, DND was a classic.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah, Same thing. Like, even though DND was a lot of separate entities, they were all connected one way or another. Right. Like between Premium and Dignity and Digging Equation, so. And the Beat Miners, obviously.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So, you know, the. The studio is more than just a studio. It's a. It's a creative hub at that point. But you have all these different energies and all these different entities, rather, you know, frequenting the place every day.

[Memphis Bleak]

That was a house, man. Yeah, I lived there.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. It become. It becomes a creative hub.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right. I lived there. See, State property dips. Everybody worked at night. So I would come to the studio. These guys would still be on the couch, dead. I'll be waking everybody up. Goo. Everybody, goo. Gotta go get his coffee.

[Just Blaze]

Right. Go down to the deli on the corner, get his coffee.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep. Go get his coffee. And then we get into work. That's one thing. I was the daytime. Morning. Got to the studio 9 o' clock in the morning. By 5 o', clock, I was done.

[Just Blaze]

Even before that, like, the way out the way for me was like, for us. Or rather when I say for us, I mean like on the studio side. Right? So me, Shane, Dave Kamel.

[Memphis Bleak]

Shout out my dude Shane man Kamel. Rest in peace. My God.

[Just Blaze]

We had to understand that, like, all right, Bleak's gonna show up anywhere between 9 and 10.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Hov's gonna show up around 2. State property might trickle in throughout the day. Cause they all move independently. Dipset's gonna show up around 8. Mack is gonna call us around 11 o' clock and say he's on. Or 10 o' clock and say he's on his way.

[Memphis Bleak]

He ain't getting there to three in the morning.

[Just Blaze]

Show up at three or four.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep.

[Just Blaze]

Pass out on the couch. Want to rap at 5. But the wild thing was, is he'll be playing the beat on 10 burgers. Go to sleep Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

Right on the couch and go to sleep.

[Just Blaze]

Go to sleep, then wake up with a rhyme.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep. That's how we did Hypnotic. Yo, bro. He turned the lights down in the studio. Remember? He turned the lights down in the studio, had incense burning, and went to sleep. And then woke up and told me bleak. I got it. It's wrecking hypnotic. I'm like, all right, let me hear it. I'm like, you do got it, right. He was a genius at that. I don't know. He would dream his verses. Yeah, yeah. Because he would go to sleep with the beat playing Wake Up. I got it right. Like.

[Just Blaze]

Which is wild when you really think about it. It's like half his brain was sleep. Sometimes we'd be like, yo, Matt.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

But then wake up with the verse. Not wake up and say, all right, give me half an hour.

[Memphis Bleak]

No, wake up with the verse, right? I'm ready. Put me in the booth. Like, what the hell? How the hell. You wrote a verse in your sleep. Like, okay, Beans, you got that talent. Okay, I see you, baby.

[Just Blaze]

But then it would. And then it would just be a cycle that would start anew, right? So, like, after Mac finished, maybe six, seven in the morning now, here I come, right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Early in the morning.

[Just Blaze]

For years. For years. But it was. And then, you know, luckily, Baseline was in the garment district, right? So you could go right downstairs, right around the corner, get a bunch of white tees. If it came down to it, you. Eventually, they put that holiday in or.

[Memphis Bleak]

Whatever it was on the corner. Yeah, right.

[Just Blaze]

Go choking the shit.

[Memphis Bleak]

Baseline, we had a nice spot during the day, right? But at night, Baseline Block became Roscoe. I remember seeing you out there. All his jewelry, big bracelet, flying cab. Like, Yo, Jess, it's 3:00, the morning. This is when the. You heard the song. The crews come out at night. Get in the car. Where you going? I'll drop you.

[Just Blaze]

It wasn't. No, but back then, we didn't have Ubers or car services.

[Memphis Bleak]

The cabs used to be like, where you going? Not going that way.

[Just Blaze]

Right, Exactly. So it was. You kind of didn't have a choice back then. I would tell you, I got kidnapped by a cab, tried to get back.

[Memphis Bleak]

In the car, man.

[Just Blaze]

Yo, seven in the morning. This is like 2001. Seven in the morning. I had studio. Like, everybody just happened to leave early on Saturday. Saturday was the one night you might get a break, right? Cause people would go out and Move.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep. Everybody was moving, right?

[Just Blaze]

So Saturday night I go to the studio. I mean, Saturday night I take a break, go home. Actually, no, I'm sorry. Early Sunday morning, I fell asleep on Saturday because everybody had left.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Sunday morning I go. Go to the crib to live downtown. Go to the crib, shower, change, et cetera, et cetera, and go back down, right. To live in the city. There was always a cab stop alone. Jump in the cab real quick. So I jump in the cab. And I always used to say the same thing every time I got in the cab.

[Memphis Bleak]

26 and 6 or 7 quarter.

[Just Blaze]

26 and 6. Far left hand corner. Yeah, that was the. That was my routine. I gave you the same instructions.

[Memphis Bleak]

26 and 6.

[Just Blaze]

So I get. We get in the cab, dude pulls over on 26 and six on the near right corner. That's. That's nothing to argue, right? But I had said to him, oh, I was. Because I was tired. I said, oh. I said, far left corner. He's like, no, you said far. He said, you said right corner. I said, yeah, I'm not gonna argue with you. So I go to my inside pocket. All I had. I was. I had to get money, get cash. Later on that night, all I had was $10 on me. Cab ride is 670 every day. Take out the 10. As I'm taking it out my inside pocket, it rips, right? So this guy just kept to finish arguing with me or trying to upstart an argument. So I apologize to see. My apologies. You know, Bill rit still good. You kind of need to take it back together.

[Memphis Bleak]

He like, hell no.

[Just Blaze]

So, yeah, he starts beefing about that. He tried.

[Memphis Bleak]

He.

[Just Blaze]

Of course, he was like, you have to give me another money. I don't have another money. This is all I have. But there's a deli, right? There's a deli right there.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

I'm like, yo, we could just get tape. And, you know. So my thing was, I would have been like, yo, you can keep the 10. You just got to tape it up. Yeah, you need to change. But now that you're being. Now we having a problem, you know, that's out the window. So he comes out to Delhi, says, they don't have tape. I said, I know they have tape. We eat there every day. They tape our sandwiches shut, right? Like, we'll take the packages shut on the sandwich. So he's like, I'm like, you know what? Let's keep this. Oh, no. So he said, you know, we're going to go see the police. I said, okay, remember the precinct was right by the Garden?

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Like three blocks up, four blocks up. So we go to the.

[Memphis Bleak]

He drive you to the police over.

[Just Blaze]

The cabin, front of the precinct. Comes out five minutes later. Said, the police said they want to see you. So the police don't want to. The police wanted to see me, they'd be outside.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly.

[Just Blaze]

I'm not walking into a police precinct. Like, hey, somebody wanted to see me. So he's like, police said they want to see you. I said, bro, I'm not getting out this car. Like, we gotta go back to the original destination was 26 and 6.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right. Now we're on 34th and 8th. You wilding?

[Just Blaze]

Exactly. So then he's like, oh, yeah, all right. It just takes off speeding crosstown. Gets down to which one goes up. I think 1st Ave. Goes up.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Gets all the way from 8th down to 1st. And I'm realizing, yo, like, he's not going back to the studio. Breaks up first half. I have my foot from the flip phone, and I had the.

[Memphis Bleak]

Alex, no, no. That's when we had the start test.

[Just Blaze]

I'm saying it was a starter. So I call my partner at the time, and I'm like, yo. And I got one bar battery left. I'm like, yo, I'm being kidnapped by a cab. She's asleep. She's like, what? Without being kidnapped? Like, can I. And I don't want to call 91 1, because I only got one. I got. Barely got any bars left. Call 911.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So she calls 91 1. I tell them what's happening. Like, they're like, sir, 911 is not for jokes. I said, this is not a joke. I am on. I was supposed to be taking the 26 and 6.

[Memphis Bleak]

This going 100 up First Avenue.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Now I'm off. Yeah. Now this guy's speeding up First Avenue. And I'm on 50th. Now I'm on 53rd. Now I'm on 55th. So she realizes what it is. So a couple minutes later, running, like, two minutes later, sirens is behind us. You lie still moving. Now there's a police blockade, like, on, like, 70. 70 something, right? Two cars blocking the street. I'm thinking, all right, I'm good. Turns out they was blocking for something else. Cab. Cab driver pulls over, and the one officer who's clearly in charge, I see him on his radio. He comes over, tells me to get out the car.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, get out. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

But I'm like, but no, but the way he's doing it as is.

[Memphis Bleak]

As if you was the criminal, right? Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So I'm. Now I hear the cab driver giving a whole false story to the officer. Two other cop cars that was coming up behind, they jump out. They start trying to explain to the main officer.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, he's not hearing right.

[Just Blaze]

So cab driver gives him a fake story. They let him go. Then the officer comes over to the other two officers, like, so what were y' all trying to say? They were like, you just let a kidnapper go, what her? That like, this guy was the passenger. He called 91 1. We've been chasing it. And you just let the dude go because you automatically just assume, yo, the black guy was the problem. So he gets away. Officer's super apologetic, but he's doing one.

[Memphis Bleak]

Of these, so I can't see his badge number.

[Just Blaze]

I can't see his info. He's. So the other two other two officers was like, yo, we would offer you a ride back. I told him I was going to work right into the specifics they offered her. They were like, yo, we offer you a ride back, but you probably don't want to show up to work in the back.

[Memphis Bleak]

Hell no. You better. You out of walk, right?

[Just Blaze]

So nobody.

[Memphis Bleak]

Officer. I got it.

[Just Blaze]

Dude went in his wallet, pulled out a Metro card in the 20 and was like, yo, this is that cop's badge number. This is the taxis. The taxis.

[Memphis Bleak]

The medallion. Yeah, that's what they used to call it. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

He's like, if I were you, I called. He said, I filed a complaint on both.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, yo, just. I'm. You have no idea how the cab world played into the Doucet life. I remember when I first got put on with the Doucet and I had to go do the party at La Marina up top. And they like, yeah, go talk to the homie. And I'm like, all right, cool. Let's go meet the homie who run La Marina, right? It's the dude who represent the cab coalition who always on the news. Every time they get a problem with a cabbie, he like, yeah, the cabbies demand more pay, right? He needs security.

[Just Blaze]

So I'm like, nightclub union representative.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, he owned lot of free. Now I'm like, yo, wow. Not the union rep on the nightclub, too.

[Just Blaze]

Wow.

[Memphis Bleak]

He got locked up for scamming, too, with the club. They shut.

[Just Blaze]

I know. I remember. They shut it down and nobody ever. It was real quiet.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. No, it ain't quiet for him.

[Just Blaze]

Right?

[Memphis Bleak]

He got them cuffs.

[Just Blaze]

Wow.

[Memphis Bleak]

Word.

[Just Blaze]

I wonder what happened.

[Memphis Bleak]

It Was like, yo, what the hell? This dude running the CAB Coalition and.

[Just Blaze]

The night and a nightclub.

[Memphis Bleak]

We out here getting triple pay. Word. Like, one question that I want to know. But somebody, because I asked, I'm like, yo, I got just Blaze coming through. Anything people want to know. You know, people always ask the same normal stuff. It's like, right? Cool. One thing that stood out, somebody said, yo, you gotta ask just what happened to the original Jay electronica album? That they said it was on streaming services and somehow got taken down.

[Just Blaze]

It was on streaming for, like, two days. I don't know how it ended up there.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, that's what happened.

[Just Blaze]

But for, like, two days it was there.

[Memphis Bleak]

No way.

[Just Blaze]

And it wasn't the finished version that I had. Cause what it was was, like, Jay would cut demos. Cause he worked the machines himself, right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Jay got one verse on 100 different records everywhere. Everywhere.

[Just Blaze]

So he would shoot me the demos. I would take them and, you know, flesh them out. Do overdubs and arrangements, mixing. Shoot it back to Shav, who was his engineer, out in Detroit. It was like a collaborative process.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Then. But, you know, Jay's a nomad, right? So he'll be in Detroit for X amount of time, Bounce down to no for X amount of time, then just disappear and go off grid. And then one time he did that and he popped up in London that we all know, you know, what he was doing out in London. So I go out there. Me and Goo both go out there. Like, all right, this is it. Yeah. Like, we got a core amount of things done. Let's get all the files together. And, you know, we started, like, two. The idea was to go out there and do, like, two or three new ideas just to add on to the homework that was already there. I would. Me and Google would take him back home and do X, Y and Z. And then, you know, J Move was on his own time. So he got some work done. There was time to follow up. Couldn't, you know, couldn't catch him again. So I think I might be the only person that had, like, the fully sequenced with the orchestra, the strings and the horns and everything, like, all strung together.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

I think I might be the only person who has all that. Then, you know, he's shaking.

[Memphis Bleak]

They gonna be on you now, Jess.

[Just Blaze]

Him and Ho had the conversation which led. Which led to them doing the joint album. And then shortly after the joint album, all of a sudden, like, the demos of. Or the original versions of a bunch of the songs from the original album popped up on streaming. And I was like. And it had the homie Frank shout out to Frank. It had Frank's artwork. I'm like, yo, it might have been Jay himself, you know. And then somebody got wind and took it down because it was, it was literally there for like two days.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's crazy. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So I don't, I don't know how that came about. I was a bit frustrated because once something is on the Internet, it lives forever. Yeah. You can pull it all. You can pull from where it originates.

[Memphis Bleak]

Somebody don't find it.

[Just Blaze]

Exactly. So. And it's going to get, you know, regurgitated and spread.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

So pardon me. Even though I don't like, not. I don't like having my work put out there without my consent, without my knowledge, or without my stamp of saying it's done, part of me wishes that it was the version that I had with the orchestra. Yeah. Just so people could really hear the full finish.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. The finished product, man. Like, they got the half done product. That's whack, man.

[Just Blaze]

Right. You know, but it's, it's. That's the day and age we live in.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. Yo, J J lek is one of my favorite artists, bro. Like you say, I hear from you and goo getting that boy in the studio, it's like pulling teeth.

[Just Blaze]

But the thing is, is once he.

[Memphis Bleak]

Gets in, he go in.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Like, I remember he. And we about to do this thing with me, him and Mos at one point. And this is like the exhibit C era, like maybe like 2010 or 11. He comes through with most like, yo, let's form a group. Okay, here's the beats.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Recorded like four joints in one night and nothing. And then I'm like, yo, all right, so what's the follow up? Like, let's get, you know, like, and. But they're both kind of. They're both kind of the same in that way where they move on their own time. No, they move independently with a free spirit.

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[Memphis Bleak]

I don't believe they had most caught up in the Drake drama. They put most. It's like he never talk how you pop up in this my G. Like.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah, that was interesting because he's not normally, he's not wanted to necessarily bite.

[Memphis Bleak]

His tongue and he don't be talking about people like that. Right.

[Just Blaze]

He's not one to bite his tongue but he's not one that's generally in the mix.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Right. So it was just. That was. I feel like that was a unicorn sighting.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

You know, like just him speaking his mind that freely about another artist.

[Memphis Bleak]

It's crazy. You can't even talk freely today because any, any, any opinion if it's not good is hate and that's whack, man.

[Just Blaze]

The other thing about it is though is that we live in a, a culture now where context as it relates to journalism is. It's kind of dead. Like what amounts to journalism now is sound bites and clips. Right clickbait. Right clickbait.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly. In the trap. And then let them let the YouTubers and everybody go crazy Twitter.

[Just Blaze]

But what really bothers me about it is we know that as a culture what bothers me is when outlets, actual outlets that perpetuate actual journalism or, or purport to perpetuate journalism feed into that. So they'll do a sit down interview with somebody for an hour, but now they're giving it to you in five minute clips.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

With like a hot take headline. And like and I, I don't even like, I, I hate even perfect example that I hate to bring up. But it is the perfect example is there's this one clip, and it makes the rounds every couple of months about how with Method man saying, oh, Kanye West.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

I seen him at a party giving, you know, performing sexual acts. Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. And it wasn't even the true clip.

[Just Blaze]

No. What it was the fun. But the ironic thing was, is what meth was speaking on was the fact that he could say something like that.

[Memphis Bleak]

And it would go viral and it.

[Just Blaze]

Would be taken out of context, chopped up, and then go viral. Right. And that's exactly what happens.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Right. So now there's every, like, I see it, like, once every month. Like, every once every, like, three months. It does the rounds.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yep. Every time.

[Just Blaze]

You know, whether it's. And it's making the rounds now because Diddy's in the news. It was making around a few months back because something was happening with Ye in the news, but it's like, every few months that gets perpetuated. Which is why, like, I'm hesitant and I have been for a long time.

[Memphis Bleak]

To even really do interviews.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Much media. Because without. Because I know that it's very easy for the context to get remote.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. And they can misconstrue anything. Today, people take. They. They want to make. Put meaning to what you mean. They like, no, you didn't mean that. This is what you mean. It's like, yo, fam, how you telling me what I meant?

[Just Blaze]

Right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Like, it makes no sense.

[Just Blaze]

And I feel like it's. I don't say it's a generational thing, but one thing that I've seen happen a lot recently is like, an artist will talk about what they meant by a lyric. The meaning behind the song was. And it will be fans or people on social media like, nah, you meant this. And the artist is like, I wrote this song as I was going through X, Y, and Z. It's about this. You said X?

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. You talking about homie over here. Yeah, the game now. It does.

[Just Blaze]

It's very different. Well, you know, everybody has a voice now. Not everybody. I think everybody has a voice, right?

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

And I hate to say this, but not everybody needs to have a voice.

[Memphis Bleak]

Some people need to be stripped of them voices. Like, you know, some people hurts them more than they.

[Just Blaze]

I say this respectfully of. Of. Of what you're doing, and I'm kind of doing the same. But, like, some. Some people need to fill out an application to buy a podcast kit.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Like, yes, you should be approved to have to buy a podcast kit because.

[Memphis Bleak]

They think it's just sit there, ask the hot topic questions. Make the 5 minute clip and then go to the party and take pictures. We here now. We lit. We. The popping podcast. We know all the. We got all the tea. That's what they call it.

[Just Blaze]

They're drinking tea.

[Memphis Bleak]

I drink water, my man.

[Just Blaze]

I don't drink. Well, speaking of which, that's what I was about to say. Like, the one dude, this is one guy that went on a podcast about why we should not drink water. Only animals drink water. Humans should not drink water. Who the hell said this and that? He also was talking about how the 808 is actually a frequency that's. I seen something about that relates humans and they become obsessed with it and it triggers something. This is all the same. He should have had. Yeah.

[Memphis Bleak]

No, yo, it's a lot of people that don't need Amazon.

[Just Blaze]

Please, like, just get.

[Memphis Bleak]

Put a band on my.

[Just Blaze]

Road podcaster kit, you know, or the. The. The. Who makes the steam deck? Not the stream deck. Logitech. Oh, all these. Please just make people fill out an application or.

[Memphis Bleak]

No, charge them a monthly subscription.

[Just Blaze]

Yes.

[Memphis Bleak]

They won't do it.

[Just Blaze]

Yes.

[Memphis Bleak]

I bet you they won't do it.

[Just Blaze]

No. And that's the thing. It's like, you know, the. The. Don't get me wrong. Ideally, yes, everyone should be fairly represented and be able to have a voice.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes. The thing is, is ultimately, what's your message? The message can't just be hate and negativity. That's the thing. People put in negativity and in the world, and then when something negative happens, they in shock. It's like. Like, yo, bro, all you do is breathe negativity.

[Just Blaze]

Perpetuate the negativity.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Like, don't be surprised when that's what permeates through society.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly. That's why I said this is. We don't. This is just conversations. I want to bring people into our world, which I didn't know. Like. Like, I was gonna ask you too. Like, just watching ye come up, man, you see where ye at. Like, that's my bro. You know what I'm saying? He from the bottom with us. So sometimes when I see how the media do them, I feel a little certain way about it. Like, damn, why they doing bro like that? But I know you just even seeing him go this far as, like, damn, we was in the stew together.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. Nah, like, it's, you know, it's a hell of a journey to watch.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

Going from, you know, him barely being able to get out of Chicago, like, calling me like, yo, can I crash at your crib for X, Y, and Z amount of time while I'm working. Right, right. Trying to make this happen. Because his thing was like, I gotta be nearby. Right. The whole thing would come into Chicago going back and forth. Just wasn't working. And it wasn't, you know, but to watch it go from that to where it is now, it's just controversy and whatnot aside.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

It's very inspirational to see somebody literally.

[Memphis Bleak]

Will something into existence and bet it all and bet against the system. Like, he went totally against the grain and came out a winner, man. Like, you know, how many people would not even think of trying?

[Just Blaze]

No. I remember even after he had, like, proven himself to the label, I remember even Defsham still fronting on things, and.

[Memphis Bleak]

He'S like, yo, what more do I need to do?

[Just Blaze]

Do I need to do to show y'? All? Like, this. This is. This. This is where we're at. I remember Touch the Sky video. The label wasn't really trying to pay much. He had some bread, but it wasn't like it is now. I want to say he spent. I remember him telling me something like 800,000 at his own pocket. Like, cleaned out. Like, yo, I believe in this project.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Video that much. If the label's not gonna do it, I'm gonna do it.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right.

[Just Blaze]

You know, and came out 800 racks. Like, let me get. Rip the Grand Canyon, you know, get the rocket, get everything, you know, Get Neilong, get Pamela, get everybody, you know? Like, it takes a lot. It takes a lot to be able to bet on yourself to that degree.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

You know, and go against the system that's ultimately there. Supposed to be there to support you, you know, go against their wishes or their budget or whatever. Just come out your pocket. And it's. It's very inspirational, to say the least.

[Memphis Bleak]

But, yo, let's get into the cars, man, a little bit. Let's switch gears, for real, because my man right here started out buying cars, decorating the car, and didn't even drive the car. And now he got lambos that light up like comic books that everybody tell me, yo, believe you ain't seen Jess Blaine's car. I'm like, you saw Jess Blaine's car win? He drive down.

[Just Blaze]

So, you know, here's the thing. I moved out to New York at a young age, right? Like, I moved to New York, I must have been 17, 18, literally $40 in my pocket, right? Came from Jersey. I think I was 17. So I'm coming at the age most people will start learning to drive. Or whatever and getting their license. I'm living in the city now.

[Memphis Bleak]

You don't need a car on a.

[Just Blaze]

Wing in a prayer dial of the dream. So I'm hitting the sub and I live. I was working at the cutting room or interning and then eventually working at the cutting room and living in the village. You know, I was living in an NYU dorm. I wasn't an NYU student.

[Memphis Bleak]

NYU dome.

[Just Blaze]

So my whole existence was within four blocks. So it was just studio, dorm, studio, dorm, studio. And then when I eventually got caught doing the dorm thing and they. They banned me from nyu, which. That's a whole other story.

[Memphis Bleak]

NYU coming with that degree next week. Now you're gonna be seeing gal. And why you honoring Judge Blaze?

[Just Blaze]

They've asked me to speak at NYU three times since. They've been. Every time I speak there, I'm like, so technically, I can get arrested for being here, but I'm talking to y' all anyway because, yeah, I'm not supposed to be within 100ft of. Of. Of anything.

[Memphis Bleak]

Wow.

[Just Blaze]

So I end up moving downtown. Financial district. Before, it was a cool place to live, but now that's just a $6 cab ride. So I just. It wasn't until I moved. Moved out the city finally.

[Memphis Bleak]

Then you started putting.

[Just Blaze]

Then it was like, all right, I gotta get. I gotta move around. So I learned to drive in three cars. I got a Tesla. Like, before people really knew what Teslas were. Of course. A little BMW i3. The little box joint. Because, like a little electric.

[Memphis Bleak]

Smart little electric joint. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

And a Lamborghini.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yo, you hear this, y'?

[Just Blaze]

All? That's how I learned to drive.

[Memphis Bleak]

You hear this? And he had an Avalanche. Brand new.

[Just Blaze]

I did Avalanche.

[Memphis Bleak]

Remember? My. My man Ralph, rest in peace. He. He decorated the car for you because he did my car.

[Just Blaze]

Remember?

[Memphis Bleak]

He was like, yo, who did your car? I want to send my car over there. Yeah. He had some type of bone marrow cancer. Ok. Yeah. And he passed with that. Yep. And, yo, I swear.

[Just Blaze]

Was my truck in the round here? No, that was Ralph.

[Memphis Bleak]

That was Ralph truck.

[Just Blaze]

That was Ralph trucking around here.

[Memphis Bleak]

The doors going up. And then he did your truck after.

[Just Blaze]

Right after that.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. And you never drove it. I probably saw the truck the day he got it back, and that was it. Never saw the truck again. You know it.

[Just Blaze]

But you know who used to. Who was not? Romero has somebody under him. Pause. Romero had somebody under him that was doing some driving. I forget who.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, he had a little. I forgot his name, but I know you're talking about he was like one of his little students coming out, right?

[Just Blaze]

So he was driving me for, like, a good, like, year or two, but he was. He was whipping my car like it was a sports car through the city.

[Memphis Bleak]

Like, yeah, you had them flats. You had them skinnies on the wall. Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

Cause I had, like, 24s or 26s. So eventually I was like, yo, we can't keep.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah, you was bending. You was hurting them. I'm a trust kn. Was.

[Just Blaze]

Was so crazy. I remember. I remember. The truck we did was you on a cover with us.

[Memphis Bleak]

No, we did the magazine.

[Just Blaze]

Me, you, and Young Guns.

[Memphis Bleak]

The Bubs. Me, you, and the Young Guns.

[Just Blaze]

I did a different one, too. I did one with Dame, I think. And Cam, the writer, assumed that my truck was Dame's, and Dame ran with it.

[Memphis Bleak]

You lying.

[Just Blaze]

I remember reading the article like, you.

[Memphis Bleak]

Was hurting them, boy.

[Just Blaze]

Like, yo, this is my.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yup. Jess was hurting him. He, like, bleak. I need. Who did this truck. I need my truck. I'm like, yo, my dude's gonna lace you. You had the real system light up in the whole back.

[Just Blaze]

Yep.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. We used to put that pressure on these streets.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah. But now. So, like, from there, like, that car sat forever. We still got it. We use it as, like, a work truck now.

[Memphis Bleak]

No way. Damn. That's crazy. Yo, you keep everything, man. Yo, I. When I want to go down memory lane, I'm coming to just Craig, you.

[Just Blaze]

Know, I still got. I still got all my throwback jerseys. I found them in storage, like, but I was clearing out storage for the baseline exam.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah.

[Just Blaze]

I finally found the box that had them all in there. I found the St. Paul jersey up top.

[Memphis Bleak]

I was like, yo, that's crazy, man.

[Just Blaze]

All of us. You know what it was? I had, like, seven storage units around the city. And then finally when I moved out the city, I just put everything in one big unit that was basically the size of an apartment. I ain't going. I didn't go to it for, like, six years. I just kept paying it. And then finally I was like, you know what? Let's consolidate. It's. But it's been a wild ride through history. Like, I've been finding your masters, yo.

[Memphis Bleak]

I know. You got so much unreleased music from everybody, man. All of what we need to do a secret. A secret album. Ho. Sign off on this, man. Like a listening or you gonna sue me? It take me to Cause me and Jess, we put out this secret album. The secret album.

[Just Blaze]

All right, but tell them about your not so secret album. What's the Thing you're working on now.

[Memphis Bleak]

Oh, man, just. I gotta. I gotta. I think I got a classic, man. Like, my first one under my belt, I believe, because I'm. I'm giving away. I felt like I wanted to do this. My boy Cheech told me, yo, bleep, you need to make an album again. And I'm like, if I make an album, I want to come back and give some type of message, like.

[Just Blaze]

Right.

[Memphis Bleak]

So I don't want to just give the young guys, like, I'm in the club popping bottles, toting straps and running around like them, because this is not the life.

[Just Blaze]

It's not the life you live, and.

[Memphis Bleak]

It'S not the life that's reality.

[Just Blaze]

And on top of that, I think the way you would communicate that just the language of the. The delivery has changed so much.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

There's kids that can say those things in ways that. That people will relate to in terms of language now.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yes.

[Just Blaze]

That we don't even speak on those terms.

[Memphis Bleak]

Exactly.

[Just Blaze]

It wouldn't go over well. I think, you know, taking the approach of, like, this is where I'm at now as a. As a legacy artist and as a veteran artist. That's kind of the approach. The only approach you really can't take is for yourself, that speaks about yourself. Because that whole generation has aged with us.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right. And giving them the mistakes I made, like, you know, everything wasn't perfect. No. From the Rockefeller veil, everybody think we all had this marvelous, rich, superstar fantasy life. They don't think we dealt with pitfalls and days where we felt like, damn, why us? You know what I'm saying? So I think on this album, I showed a little bit more vulnerability on this project, even more than what I did with my main project, just to have you on there. Knife wonder, hitmaker Buck. Wow. Sent me a joyous life. I'm back in the 90s. Who wants smoke with me now? So I'm ready, man. Like, it's good, man. I'm about to shoot your video. I. Hopefully this summer.

[Just Blaze]

Yeah, we're gonna be hitting the streets.

[Memphis Bleak]

With that for sure. But, like, before we go, I want to let y' all know. You let them know where they can find you. You better check my man out on Fresh Pear. He got his own pie with the Fresh sneaks on y' all head top.

[Just Blaze]

Yes, sir.

[Memphis Bleak]

He the J man. We wore some sneakers he only wore on the carpet that if they left the carpet, he got to take them off. That's how, you know, shit's a hundred thousand.

[Just Blaze]

You know, we got the show Fresh pair, shout out to Uproxx and my co host, Caddy Customs. The short of it is how you watch a late night talk show and the host will have cue cards, right? And that, that's kind of those cue cards, the talking points dictate the flow of the conversation. We do the same, but we build a custom sneaker around the artist's journey and their, their career and their life. And all the details are on the shoe. And we basically just point out the details on the shoe. You know, sometimes they're blatant, sometimes they're very subtle. Like it might just be a color arrangement or a texture arrangement, but we use that, the shoe as the basis for a great conversation. And we've been super fortunate and blessed to have some great artists on there, yourself included. Ice Cube, TI Game, Redman's Jada has done it. LP from Run the Jewels. It's been great, you know, so we're gearing up now to really get into season two. Season one did very well.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's what's up, man.

[Just Blaze]

And yeah, please tune in new episodes, dropping every show.

[Memphis Bleak]

That's right. You already know, man, this has been another classic episode of Rock Solid. My brother is way more than rock solid. That's my brother, this blood. You see him, you see me, you violate him, you violate me and I'm the one gonna come looking for you. It's another one. Know what it is?

[Just Blaze]

Rock Solid.

[Memphis Bleak]

Yeah. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows at. And you can follow me on any social media platform under the name Memphis Bleak. You see anybody fraud, Flag them.

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[Just Blaze]

I have type 2 diabetes, but I manage it well.

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[Just Blaze]

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[Memphis Bleak]

This is an iHeart podcast.